By Matt Sepic, KWMU
St. Louis – Missouri Governor Matt Blunt says crafting a new school funding formula will be one of the state's biggest challenges this year.
But at his first St. Louis news conference as Governor Wednesday, he reiterated his position that raising taxes is not the way to fix the problem.
"While I'm governor over the next four years, we're going to deliver more dollars to Missouri classrooms every year than we did before," Blunt said. "That's meaningful, and school districts are going to know that that commitment exists, and that means we're willing to make tough decisions in the rest of the budget."
Blunt also said new revenue from general economic growth should be funneled to classrooms.
The state's current funding formula dates to 1993. It came about because of a lawsuit from school districts.
Now more than 250 districts are suing over the same issues. They claim the state does not spend enough on education, and what it does spend is not doled out evenly.